1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to apparatuses and methods suited for subsea pipe cutting, and more specifically, but not by way of limitation, to apparatuses and methods suited for subsea pipe cutting during subsea blowout preventer operations.
2. Description of Related Art
A blowout preventer is a mechanical device, usually installed redundantly in stacks, used to seal, control, and/or monitor a subsea well. Typically, a blowout preventer stack includes a number of devices, such as, for example, ram blowout preventers, annular blowout preventers, accumulators, test valves, failsafe valves, kill and/or choke lines and/or valves, riser joints, hydraulic connectors, and/or the like, many of which may be hydraulically actuated.
In some instances, a blowout preventer may be required to close an occupied wellbore (e.g., having an object disposed therein, such as, for example, a drill pipe, drill string, casing, and/or the like). In these instances, a blowout preventer can be configured to seal around an object disposed in the wellbore (e.g., a pipe ram blowout preventer, an annular blowout preventer, and/or the like) and/or shear the object (e.g., a shear ram blowout preventer, a blind shear ram blowout preventer, and/or the like).
Shearing an object disposed within a wellbore may be particularly effective during certain procedures, such as, for example, when it is desired to disconnect a lower marine riser package from a blowout preventer stack (or a portion of a blowout preventer stack), and/or the like. Shear-type blowout preventers may be a typical solution to shearing such an object; however, shear-type blowout preventers typically require a relatively high amount of closing power, and may also be relatively large and/or complex (e.g., and perhaps less reliable). And, if a shear-type blowout preventer fails to effectively shear the object (e.g., which may occur due to damage to the shear-type blowout preventer, object, and/or the like, caused by, for example, a well blowout, component malfunction, and/or the like), completion of a procedure (e.g., removal of a lower marine riser package from the blowout preventer stack) may suffer complications.